The movie Harriet was supposed to be a historical biopic documentary film that was publicized as an homage to the great pioneer of the underground railroad Harriet Tubman. The movie was co-written by Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard, but the way the movie was wrote ticked off many in the black community for several reasons. Well, first off British actress Cynthia Erivo was selected to play the lead role in the portrayal of Harriet Tubman. Erivo being selected as the lead did stir up a negative buzz because of her negative thoughts and remarks about black Americans that she has stated in interviews and posted on her social media. Erivo, a stage actress who had a debut role in the Broadway classic “The Color Purple” alongside Jennifer Hudson, who portrayed singer Shug Avery. Erivo is also a Tony Award-winning actress. Black America was trying to figure out how and why did the directors and writers of the movie choose Erivo to play Harriet Tubman? Erivo is an accomplished stage actress, but seems to look out of place on the silver screen. Also, the black community also wanted to see Harriet Tubman portrayed by a black American female actress.
British actress Cynthia Erivo in the movie Harriet
Cynthia Erivo is at the center of controversy taking the role of Harriet as well as playing past roles as Sister Mary Clarence in a stage version of Sister Act as well as the fore-mentioned role of Celie in The Color Purple, which are roles that originated with black American female actresses. The Black community has been wondering how a woman who has a history of making negative remarks and even mocking black Americans take a role to portray a historic icon in Black American as well as American history? The people wanted answers. Film Consultant and historian Kate Larson said,” The movie is fiction, but mirrors Tubman’s life.” Yet Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons portrayed a version of Harriet Tubman that was disrespectful to the Black community. The movie had Harriet running from a “black slave catcher or bounty hunter” which his not historically correct and the antogonist’s role was fictitious as was over half of the main characters in the movie. Then, has Harriet in all kinds of sex scenes and having sex with the slave master. Harriet Tubman was trying to get people from point A to point B as quickly as possible while saving these peoples lives. Harriet did not have time to have all the sex that they showed in that film. The main reason why Black people are turned off to the movie Harriet is because the life of Harriet Tubman that most black people have studied and learned about their whole lives did not match the role that was portrayed on the screen. You have a movie that is supposed to be a biopic of an American Icon’s life, but the film that you would think would be based on facts and history is flawed with fiction. The movie did gross over 12 million dollars, which ranked #12 of all the movies shown since it’s release. In the last couple of days Erivo has been doing damage control over the tweets and comments that she has said before this film. What Cynthia Erivo does not realize is that when it comes to black Americans; you can not disrespect them and then play a role portraying one of them to try to make it go over. These are the reasons why black people hate the movie Harriet.